# Dazibao (Big-Character Posters)

> Handwritten wall posters in large brush characters that turned the walls of Mao-era China into a public forum for criticism, denunciation and, at the Democracy Wall, dissent. Written by anyone, in black or red ink on white or red paper, without printed type or pictures, they were pasted edge to edge and over each other until walls, mat screens and corridors became one dense, ever-changing field of text. The right to write them was struck from the constitution in 1980.

- Period: 1957–1980
- Where: East Asia
- Origin: Precedents in Yan'an wall newspapers of the 1940s; a mass form on Beijing campuses from the Hundred Flowers campaign (Peking University, May 1957), nationwide in the Cultural Revolution from May 1966, and last at the Xidan Democracy Wall, Beijing (1978–79)
- Branch: Counterculture
- Also known as: Big-character poster, Wall posters, Democracy Wall posters
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/dazibao/

## Use it with care

Dazibao were instruments of denunciation: in the Anti-Rightist campaign and the Cultural Revolution they named, humiliated and incited violence against real people, many of whom were persecuted or died. Do not use the look as playful 'Chinese protest' decoration or for mock denunciations of real individuals, have any Chinese text written or checked by a fluent writer, and treat surviving posters and photographs as testimony.

## How it works

- Write everything by hand with brush and ink: no printed type and almost no pictures.
- Make hierarchy with character size alone, a huge headline or slogan over columns of dense argument.
- Use cheap white or red sheets with black or red ink, and write in vertical columns when the text runs long.
- Paste sheets edge to edge and over older posters, so the wall becomes one continuous, layered text field.
- Write fast and in public; the urgency of an amateur hand is the authority.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [All-over field](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-over-field/) (defining)
- [Collage & layering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/) (characteristic)
- [Column grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/column-grid/) (characteristic)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (characteristic)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (occasional)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Brush & pen calligraphy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/brush-and-pen-calligraphy/) (defining)
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (characteristic)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (characteristic)
- [Rotated & vertical setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rotated-and-vertical-setting/) (characteristic)
- [Tight setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/tight-setting/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (characteristic)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)

### Form & shape
- [Rectilinear](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rectilinear/) (occasional)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (defining)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (characteristic)
- [Photocopy & distress](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/photocopy-and-distress/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Ornament-free](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornament-free/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Typography only](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/typography-only/) (defining)
- [Comic & cartoon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/comic-and-cartoon/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (defining)
- [Architecture & signage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/architecture-and-signage/) (defining)

### Tone & intent
- [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (defining)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (characteristic)
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (characteristic)

Avoids: Straight photography, Painterly illustration, Gradients, Full polychrome, Abundant decoration, Offset printing, Generous white space, Naturalistic depiction

Palette: #111111, #f2eee3, #c3272b, #e9b9b5, #e3cf72

Typefaces: Freehand brush kaishu and xingshu (regular and running script), Imitations of Mao Zedong's cursive calligraphy for headings

Known for: First critical big-character poster at Peking University (19 May 1957, Hundred Flowers campaign); Nie Yuanzi and colleagues, big-character poster at Peking University (25 May 1966); Mao Zedong, 'Bombard the Headquarters: My Big-Character Poster' (5 August 1966; circulated, never posted); Li Yizhe, 'On Socialist Democracy and the Legal System' (Guangzhou, 1974; 64 sheets); Xidan Democracy Wall, Beijing (1978–79), including Wei Jingsheng's 'The Fifth Modernization' (5 December 1978)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Influenced by: [Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/socialist-realism.md) (1932–1989)
- Influenced by: [Chinese Calligraphy & Seal Carving (Shufa & Zhuanke)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/chinese-calligraphy-seal.md) (c. 0–present)
- Alike in its design choices: [Pixação (São Paulo Tag Reto)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/pixacao.md) (1980–present), 60% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Edo-moji Commercial Lettering (Kanteiryū, Yose-moji, Sumō-ji)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/edo-moji.md) (1779–present), 60% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Urdu Katib Lithography](https://stylogeny.com/styles/urdu-katib-lithography.md) (1837–present), 55% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Dada](https://stylogeny.com/styles/dada.md) (1916–1924), 49% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [ROSTA Windows](https://stylogeny.com/styles/rosta-windows.md) (1919–1922), 47% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Chilean Estallido Social Graphics (Revuelta Popular of 2019–20)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/chilean-estallido-graphics.md) (2019–2022), 47% alike

## Real works

- [Big-character posters criticising Lu Ping and Peng Peiyun, Peking University](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1966-10_1966%E5%B9%B4%E5%AF%B9%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%A6%E9%99%86%E5%B9%B3%E5%BD%AD%E4%BD%A9%E4%BA%91%E7%9A%84%E6%89%B9%E5%88%A4.jpg): Anonymous Peking University writers; photograph published by People's Pictorial, 1966 (published in People's Pictorial no. 10, October 1966), People's Pictorial (人民画报), via Wikimedia Commons
- [Big-character posters on a fence in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1967-09_1967%E5%B9%B4_%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E5%A4%A7%E9%9D%A9%E5%91%BD%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%97%E6%8A%A5%E6%B4%BB%E5%8A%A8.jpg): Anonymous poster writers; photograph published by People's Pictorial, 1967 (published in People's Pictorial no. 9, 1967), People's Pictorial (人民画报), via Wikimedia Commons
- [Pasting big-character posters on a street wall](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1967-04_1967%E5%B9%B4%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%97%E6%8A%A5.jpg): Anonymous poster writers; photograph published by People's Pictorial (Renmin Huabao), 1967 (published in People's Pictorial, April 1967), People's Pictorial (人民画报), via Wikimedia Commons
- [Writing big-character posters during the rectification campaign ('Sweep away the five airs', 橫掃五氣)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Writing_propaganda_posters.jpg): Niu Weiyu (牛畏予), photographer; posters by staff of a Ministry of Building Engineering design institute, c. 1957–58 (published 1959), 中國攝影藝術選集 (1959), p. 8, via Wikimedia Commons

## Sources

- Wikipedia, 'Big-character poster' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big-character_poster)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'dazibao' (https://www.britannica.com/topic/dazibao)
- Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, 'Exhibiting the Cultural Revolution, Part 1: Reading Big-Character Posters' (https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/?p=27399)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Dazibao (Big-Character Posters)”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/dazibao/